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Giving us all a little break from the green car parade at the LA Auto show, Porsche gave North America it’s first look at the 2008 911 GT2. Based on the current 911 Turbo, the 911 GT2 is a beast, not designed for your average LA attorney. We had a few minutes with David Pryor Vice President of Marketing of Porsche Cars North America. David, a 911 driver, summed it up like this, “The GT2 is the perfect blend between the Porsche Turbo and the GT3.” The GT3, At 415 horsepower, is the most powerful naturally aspirated six cylinder engine in any production car.

Giving us all a little break from the green car parade at the LA Auto show, Porsche gave North America it’s first look at the 2008 911 GT2. Based on the current 911 Turbo, the 911 GT2 is a beast, not designed for your average LA attorney. We had a few minutes with David Pryor, Vice President of Marketing of Porsche Cars North America. David, a 911 driver, summed it up like this, “The GT2 is the perfect blend between the Porsche Turbo and the GT3. The GT3, at 415 horsepower, is the most powerful naturally aspirated six cylinder engine in any production car. The twin turbo GT2 has ONLY 530 horsepower.

The LA Auto Show was beginning to feel a birthday party for Ed Begley. Fuel cells, hybrids, bluetec, plug-ins, clean diesel. How about a brief introductory course in the “New European Driving Cycle”? While technology is making green more interesting all the time, you can’t replace horsepower with the warm and fuzzies of a green car. Thank God for Porsche. Certainly, our friends from Stuttgart won’t let us down. Wrong. Porsche came to the 2007 Los Angeles Auto Show with a green pitch, albeit somewhat tempered.

The new Porsche Cayman is the Most Ideal Premium Sports Car in its first year on the market. Sports cars are not known for their functionality and utility, but are known for high image, high performance and sex appeal. Cayman delivers. As might be expected, the Cayman is highly rated for exterior styling and handling. As with virtually all Premium Sports Cars, more power is always better – and the Cayman is no exception.

By winning the 2007 Ideal Vehicle Award, the Porsche Boxster wraps up a clean sweep of all three AutoPacific awards for the year – the Vehicle Satisfaction Award, the Motorist Choice Award with Intellichoice and the Ideal Vehicle Award. This sweep is extremely rare and was duplicated by only one other vehicle this year. The Boxster scores particularly well with respect to handling and also exterior size, passenger room and cargo space. The Boxster is top of its class in terms of power and acceleration, but the numbers tell the tale: more power please!

AutoPacific Take on Porsche Boxster Win – In a close race with its sibling (the Porsche Cayman), owners rate the Boxster number one sports car in the 2007 Motorist Choice Awards®. They find the Boxster extremely fun to drive with excellent handling, braking, power and acceleration. Contributing to the win were owners ratings for overall quality, reliability/durability and reputation.
*Owners also rate drivers seat comfort as superior; but that rating may have been scored subsequent to the feel-good endorphins still being pumped into their brain just thinking about the excellent handling, braking, power and acceleration.IntelliChoice take on Porsche Boxster win – The Porsche Boxster does not stand out within the ownership cost analysis, but neither does it sink. The Boxster performs well in both fuel and maintenance costs.

Porsche Boxster Wins AutoPacific 2007 Vehicle Satisfaction Award for Sports Car:
“Sports cars are supposed to be exhilarating to drive, but sometimes difficult to live with. Owners of the Porsche Boxster indicate it delivers on exhilarating, but is not difficult to live with,” says AutoPacific president George Peterson. “Boxster owners rated their car highly for Power/Acceleration and Braking. But what might not be expected is that (relative to other vehicles in the segment) the Boxster was well rated for Cargo Space/Capacity, Cupholders (yes, cupholders!), and Interior Storage. Somebody in Stuttgart is listening!”

You could tell from the smiles on the faces of the suits from Cadillac that they had just come from something special. The Cadillac Escalade had just won the Playboy 2007 Car of the Year Award. Jim Taylor, Cadillac General Manager was lugging around a golden trophy with a totally blinged-out Playboy bunny glued to it and a discreet plaque proclaiming Escalade’s win.

Playboy Magazine has just named their 2007 Cars of the Year. Included in this year’s list were:Playboy 2007 Car of the Year – BMW Z4 MBest SUV – Cadillac EscaladeBest Sports Coupe – Porsche 911 CarreraBest Bang for the Buck – Ford Mustang Shelby GT 500The Al Gore Special – Lexus GS450hBest Two-Way Player – Volkswagen EosBest Pickup – Toyota TundraBest Cross Dresser – Mazda CX-7Best Roadster – Saturn Sky Red Line
Oh yeah, about the presentations. Apparently, a hostess Playmate gave the executives a tour around the Playboy Mansion. A former Playmate, the young lady was extremely well spoken, knew her stuff and presented Playboy in a very favorable light. What I’m saying is that she wasn’t the airhead blonde bimbette that may have been expected at Playboy.

2008 Porsche Cayenne Revealed in Detroit
Among the many introductions expected at the 2007 North American International Auto Show in Detroit next week is that of an updated Porsche Cayenne. The first real sports-car-meets-SUV gets new engines to go with minor styling changes that improve aerodynamic efficiency. The new Cayenne arrives in U.S. dealers in March 2007 for the 2008 model year. I, for one, am looking forward to driving these new, sleeker, more powerful versions of the Cayenne. While it’s been several years since I’ve been behind the wheel of one, it took only one afternoon driving the Cayenne S and Turbo for me to appreciate the impulse that could lead to buying a $90,000 SUV. Adding horsepower and beefing up the available features list should make for an even nicer product.

Even with these changes, Cayenne is not likely to see its peak sales year again. Back in 2004, Porsche sold just over 18,000 Cayennes. Since then, sales have settled in the low teens. Though sales around 12,000 units annually is perhaps not so bad for a high-priced, niche vehicle, this facelift will do more to hold volumes than to increase Cayenne’s overall sales.

The new engines are the most interesting elements of this change, as exterior tweaks don’t go beyond new headlights, more heavily contoured wheel arches, a new diffuser-style apron and roof spoiler, and revised front air intakes. The new intakes improve air cooling and engine efficiency, of course. The air intakes are still different for each model and the new headlights are a smoother. These changes give each version of the Cayenne a better-integrated and less clumsy look between headlights and front fascia. Changes to the rear are more subtle, but the new taillamps and bigger rear spoiler make for a more purposeful look. For comparison, here are a couple of photos of the first Cayenne.

All three models, Cayenne, Cayenne S, and Cayenne Turbo, get more power and efficiency thanks to direct injection engines. Porsche’s European press material estimates as much as 15 percent fuel savings in real-world driving. While Porsche’s North American arm is holding U.S. specifications for the show itself, they will be similar to the European versions.